Over three centuries, how did Chang’an Automobile do it?

This year marks the 160th anniversary of Chang’an. Throughout the history of China’s automobile industry, and even the history of the world’s automobile industry, Chang’an Automobile can always be on the list.

The predecessor of Chang’an was the Shanghai Sea Cannon Bureau, which was the first Chinese enterprise to use machinery and equipment for production, and the modern Chinese industry started from this;

Until 1984, Chang’an became a successful example of “military-to-civilian transformation”, thus leading Chinese brands to embark on the road of automobile power;

Chang’an is also one of the rare self-owned brands that has experienced three startups, and has grown into a first-class self-owned brand all the way.

From 1862 to 2022, the development of Chang’an has spanned 3 centuries and 160 years. How did Chang’an manage to maintain youth forever and be full of vitality for development in such a long period of time?

Entering the “most Changan” state in history

Throughout the development history of Chang’an, whether it is the beginning of China’s modern industry, a representative of an industrial power after the founding of New China and a successful example of “military-to-civilian transformation”, or three entrepreneurial experiences since the 1980s. It can be seen that Chang’an in each period has a distinctive imprint of the times, which is why “Technical Chang’an” is so impressive after entering the era of smart electric vehicles.

And in every era, Chang’an can achieve great things, especially in the process of continuous development and growth after starting to chase the car dream, Chang’an’s hard work and innovative spirit have played an important role.

Chang’an has established a set of corporate culture that emphasizes self-driven. For example, its corporate spirit is self-criticism, active responsibility, scientific rationality, innovation and entrepreneurship, and its code of conduct is firm goal, unity and cooperation, and efficient action.

Driven by this wolf-like cultural concept, Chang’an was able to achieve outstanding achievements in the three start-ups.

Today, as an enterprise of China’s four major automobile groups, Chang’an Automobile, which has 160 years of history and 38 years of car manufacturing accumulation, has 14 production bases and 33 complete vehicle, engine and transmission factories around the world. In 2014, the cumulative sales of Chang’an’s Chinese brand cars exceeded 10 million. In 2021, the cumulative sales of Chang’an’s Chinese brand cars will exceed 20 million.

In terms of technology, Chang’an Automobile has more than 11,000 engineers and technicians from 24 countries around the world. Established a global collaborative research and development pattern of “six countries and ten places” with Munich, Germany, each with its own focus. It has a professional automobile R&D process system and test verification system to ensure that each product can be used by users for 10 years or 260,000 kilometers.

At present, the development of Chang’an Automobile has entered the “longest safe” state in history, with both scale and efficiency, and sustainable development with strong potential and a bright future.

On April 13 this year, Chang’an Automobile held the 2022 Chang’an Automobile Global Partner Conference. Zhu Huarong, chairman of Chang’an Automobile, emphasized that under the new market background, Chang’an Automobile will transform and upgrade with firm determination, continue to carry forward the “innovative spirit”, and firmly implement the third Entrepreneurship—Innovation and entrepreneurship plan to accelerate the transformation into an intelligent and low-carbon travel technology company, and move towards a world-class brand at full speed.

Complete the upgrade with three entrepreneurial experiences

The historical multiple-choice questions, which are both challenges and opportunities brought about by the forward development of the times, have followed Chang’an’s three innovation and entrepreneurship experiences.

Chang’an’s first venture began in 1980. At that time, Chang’an was in the throes of transition from “army to civilian”. However, facing the unprecedented historical opportunity of reform and opening up, Chang’an chose to turn challenges into opportunities and actively adapt to the times. Following the trend, we chose the road of car power.

The start-up sign of Chang’an’s first venture was the first batch of minivans manufactured in 1984. By 1986, the Chang’an factory had completed the production mark of 10,000 vehicles. On track.

Chang’an’s second venture began in 2000. With the rising demand for private cars, Chang’an chose to take the initiative to enter the private car field from a commercial vehicle-based company.

With the advent of explosive products such as Eado and CS75, Chang’an’s second entrepreneurial journey has embarked on a period of rapid development. In 2014, the cumulative production and sales of Chang’an’s Chinese brand cars exceeded 10 million, becoming the first Chinese brand to enter the “ten million club”. The second entrepreneurial experience also made Chang’an Automobile stand on the top of China’s independent brands.

In October 2017, Chang’an Automobile officially launched the “Third Entrepreneurship-Innovation and Entrepreneurship Plan”, which has been updated to version 5.0. For the third venture, Chang’an Automobile mainly focuses on the two key areas of new energy and intelligence, and actively transforms into an intelligent and low-carbon travel technology company. Therefore, Chang’an Automobile launched the implementation of the two major plans of “Shangri-La” and “Beidou Tianshu”.

It can be seen from the previous two entrepreneurial experiences and the third entrepreneurial experience that Chang’an is currently experiencing. Every time Chang’an starts a business, it can grasp the pulse of the times. The first two are the spring breeze of reform and opening up and the historical opportunity of private cars entering the family. The once-in-a-century wave of smart electrification.

However, Chang’an can grow into China’s first-class independent brand today, not only because of the development vision of grasping historical opportunities, but more importantly, the company’s overall view of the overall situation and efficient execution of actions. This makes Chang’an’s history full of a sense of the times and a sense of mission. At the same time, it also makes Chang’an now full of youthful vitality, more like a technology company.

“Science and Technology Chang’an” has grown up

After five years of transformation, Chang’an’s third innovation and entrepreneurship has achieved phased results, and the image of “Technological Chang’an” based on electrification and intelligence has begun to grow.

In terms of electrification, under the guidance of the “Shangri-La” new energy plan, Chang’an Automobile’s electrification transformation has achieved remarkable results and has been at the forefront of the industry.

In the first 10 months of this year, the sales volume of Chang’an Automobile reached 1.9056 million units, of which the sales volume of self-owned brands reached 1.5075 million units, achieving a year-on-year increase. In the first 10 months, sales of independent new energy vehicles increased by 133.25% year-on-year to 192,900 vehicles. The sales volume of nearly 200,000 new energy vehicles ranks among the top in China.

The important thing is that in the new energy track, Chang’an has completed a leap from quantitative change to qualitative change, and realized the high-end brand with the help of new energy transformation.

For example, the brand-new pure electric digital brand Chang’an Shenlan released in April this year, its first 200,000-class mass-produced model, the Shenlan SL03, has been very popular since its launch. Orders exceeded 10,000 within 33 minutes of its release, and sales are currently rising month by month. Potential.

Another example is Avita, a high-end brand jointly built by Huawei and Ningde Times. Its first emotionally intelligent electric coupe SUV, Avita 11, has received more than 20,000 orders within 17 days of its launch, indicating a promising market prospect.

This is mainly due to Chang’an’s breakthroughs in a number of advanced technologies and platforms around the electrification transformation. At present, Chang’an has independently mastered electrification core technologies such as electric drive technology, battery technology, electric control technology and low-carbon energy consumption technology.

Chang’an has formed four major new energy platform architectures – MPA architecture, EPA architecture, CHN platform and SDA architecture. Among them, the MPA architecture is compatible with ICE and its electrified products. It is a smart architecture that integrates multiple forms, multiple energy sources, and multiple scenarios. It has been launched with UNI-V.

The EPA architecture is a platform architecture for the mainstream electric vehicle market. The products already on the market include Chang’an Deep Blue SL03 and Chang’an Lumin; the CHN platform is a world-leading smart electric vehicle technology platform jointly created by Chang’an, Huawei, and CATL. Based on this platform Avita 11 is available.

The SDA architecture is an electronic and electrical architecture based on central computing and regional control. It is also a specific practical plan for Chang’an Automobile to fully promote “software-defined vehicles”.

After playing a series of electrification combinations with competitive products and technologies, Chang’an’s electrification background is not only strong, but also full of high-end temperament.

In terms of intelligence, under the guidance of the “Beidou Tianshu” intelligence strategy, Chang’an has also done a good job in the field of intelligence in recent years.

At present, Chang’an Automobile has achieved many leading achievements in the field of intelligence. For example, the mass production of 16 key technologies such as pedestrian automatic emergency braking, remote valet parking, and remote intelligent parking has been launched; in 2021 and 2022, it will win the gold medal in the World Intelligent Driving Challenge for two consecutive years; from 2018 to 2022, it will In 5 years, he has won many first prizes and second prizes of science and technology at the national, provincial and ministerial levels.

Thanks to the full preparation in the early stage, Chang’an Automobile launched a new smart brand-“Zhuge Smart” this year. It will bring users three core experiences of “Zhuge Interactive, Zhuge Smart Driving, and Zhuge Ecology”.

It is reported that “Zhuge Smart” relies on the central computing platform and the terminal-cloud integrated system to realize intelligent decision-making. Through scalable software and hardware and a customizable service ecosystem, it brings safer intelligent driving, more intimate intelligent interaction and richer services. Smart ecology, creating a new experience of smart travel in all scenarios.

With the goal of building a world-class automobile brand, Chang’an will continue to expand its investment in the field of intelligent electrification-by 2025, it will invest more than 80 billion yuan, with more than 10,000 R&D personnel in intelligence, software and new energy. Chang’an’s goal is to launch more than 30 new intelligent connected products in succession by 2025, and to achieve sales of 4.5 million Chang’an branded intelligent connected vehicles by 2030.

It can be seen that Chang’an Automobile’s intelligent background is also exciting.

Electrification and intelligence are undoubtedly the spring breeze of this era. There is no doubt that Chang’an Automobile has seized this once-in-a-century opportunity at the right time and is moving forward slowly.

Car Cloud Summary

After 160 years and spanning 3 centuries, Chang’an’s history is long enough and magnificent enough to be worthy of a special book in the history of China’s industry.

But whether the next 160 years can be written into the history books will need to be written by the current Chang’an.

Having gone through two successful entrepreneurial experiences and the third one now, I believe that Chang’an has more confidence in the future and is more sure of winning.

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